A traditional automobile plate die uncoiling and blanking line has a production rate of about 25 sheets per minute, and an annual output of 4,000,000-6,000,000 sheets, and after planar blank sheets are obtained by die blanking, they should be subjected to a stamping forming line to obtain stamped automobile plate parts. Three-dimensional parts are obtained by stamping forming lines corresponding to different investments and production scales. However, a robot stamping production line commonly used in China has a production rate of about 5 sheets per minute, a single-arm cross-bar manipulator stamping line has a production rate of about 10 sheets per minute, and a manual-feeding stamping line has a slower production rate of only 3-5 sheets per minute. This means that one uncoiling and blanking line should respond to multiple stamping forming production lines. This mode is commonly applied in a machining centre or an entire car plant, causing a large plant area and large investment.
In the production of small-size pop can cover stamped parts, Chinese patent application No. CN200920171407.5, for example, summarizes the existing production solutions for pop and proposes multi-passage automatic stamping methods, of which the two-punching machine synchronous operation solution or multi-passage stamping solution is suitable for production of small parts, and will undoubtedly cause a high investment pressure and a great difficulty in design and implementation.
A traditional uncoiling and blanking line requires a stacking process after blanking, bundles of sheets after stacking shall be transferred to multiple stamping lines for individual operations, each stamping line should be equipped with transferring devices for frequent transfer, such as a forklift truck, a towing flat-bed trailer or a transport truck, and processes such as unstacking, and material picking-up and loading should exist before the stamping line; and a stamping line is generally composed of multiple multiple presses or a multi-die press is used, to obtain finished parts. In short, two production lines are required to implement the forming process, respectively an uncoiling and blanking line and a stamping forming line; the need of moving the sheets repeatedly reduces the operating efficiency and requires a larger space for storage and conveyance to finally obtain shaped parts.
In order to solve the problem of huge die expenses and costs in maintenance and storage thereof resulting from die blanking and to achieve flexible blanking, laser blanking has become an applicable method. However, it is still a technical bottleneck to make the laser blanking reach the production rate of the traditional die blanking, and even if multiple cutting heads are provided to implement equivalent output to the die blanking, there still exist a number of technical difficulties and investment risks.
At present, with the blanking quality ensured, a laser uncoiling and blanking line has a regular production rate less than dozens of sheets per minute, and such a low output exactly meets the requirements of some new vehicle models, personalized vehicle models and modified models, without using huge die development expenses and long die trial period for the vehicle models. Moreover, such a production rate exactly matches that of a common stamping forming line. Thus, a method combining a laser blanking line and a stamping line becomes possible.